User blog:Shigfugjum/"Jhin" and the Four Champion Icons
So I've done a bit of reading up on the four champions whose icons have been altered to tease the upcoming champion (assumabley). These champs are, if you don't know, Garen, Sona, Vi, and Zed.. These champions all have had shimmering overlay effects added to their icons - Garen has leaves, Sona has birds, Zed has petals, and Vi has Smoke. Additionally, each champion's expression is change to of repose. Except for Zed, who simply lacks the glowing red eyes. It's hard to find a true connection betweens these characters. Sona, Vi, and Zed are all orphans that grew up without their birth parents, though Garen's official lore makes no mention of whether his parents are living or deceased. All of them do command some role of authority or awe. Garen is a respected Demacian commander. Zed leads the Order of Shadows. Sona is a famous musician who draws huge crowds for her performances. Vi is an imposing figure that (purportedly) intimidates the criminals of Piltover. Another way to put it is all four are paragons in their fields. Garen, a great leader; Zed, a ninja wth mastery of forbidden techniques, Sona a musician, and Vi a master of punching things. Zed, Garen, and Vi all have rivals. Zed has Shen and the Order of Twilight. Garen has Katarina. Vi has Jinx. Sona doesn't have a rival, though she did vie for attention among the other orphans. The final parallel I could see is that all four have had some significant exhange or meeting that changed the direction of their lives. Zed was banished, Sona was adopted and/or met the etwahl (her instrument). Vi was nearly buried alive, became a robin hood of sorts, and then joined the Piltover police. Garen met Katarina and started his rivalry. Honestly, I'm not sure what this all means for the new champion (especially since not all of things things seem to apply to all champions). Based on the teaser art it doesn't seem like the new champion is a friend of these four. Perhaps he has some kind of envy for them? What do you guys think? The Virtuoso Revealed (Jan 8 2015). Some of you had some neat ideas. Iffem pointed out that all of the teaser art traces right back to the selection quotes for each champions; the quotes all make reference to a prominent aspect to the champion (Sona’s muteness, Zed references being unseen, Garen is the ‘heart’ of demacia, Vi references punching), and each of the teaser arts revolves around that aspect. But now Riot has released a video. It is very abtract and doesn’t say too much directly. But the title of the video uses the word Virtuoso. A virtuoso is someone who is considered a master of some kind of art form. Usually the are the pinnacle or central figure in a mode of art. The video also includes a rather disturbing line of dialogue, given the context: “I will make you beautiful.” The champion obviously considers himself an artist, and if we assume that the teaser portraits are his ‘art’, we can say that he practices the art of serial murder. It seems that he (or she) was insired by the aspects or ideas that the four victim exemplify – muteness, deceit, a brave heart, and violence – and used the exemplifiers to create a work of ‘art’. If he is infact a serial murderer, I am surprised to see this concept used. We already have both Jinx and Shaco as existing serial criminals, though they have their own unique flavor. Jinx is not really about killing, per se, but more about destroying and upheaving society. Shaco is just about the killing itself. This virtuoso, supposedly, is clearly trying to bring a sense of irony and artistry to each of his victim’s deaths. He is making a statement about his victims. But then this begs the question of his motives. Not only does it make me ask what is he saying, but why is he saying it? Serial criminals have an underlying motivation. There is something beyond bloodlust here. All four of the victims shown are all people of renown and/or infamy – he’s not just stalking random people and making a pun with their corpse. Is he angry with his targets? Envious? Does he see them as a threat? As competition? Is he trying to punish them? Of course, we can go back to the line “I will make you beautiful.” There are really two ways you can take this. He sees something in his targets that inspires him, and he is driven to display and immortalise that inspiration. This could be considered a form of flattery. The other way is that he finds something flawed in his victims and they way they carry whatever aspect he sees in them. In that sense, his ‘art’ is a way to correct or remove these flaws. I get the sense that we will be seeing a much more direct reveal soon. Category:Blog posts